1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying spouts or bags attached with spouts, which are conveyed in a single row along guide rails, to a rotating rotor of, for instance, an manufacturing apparatus of spout-attached bags, a filling machine, etc.
2. Prior Art
In regard to transfer of spouts, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 11-208884 discloses a spout supply apparatus.
In this supply apparatus, spouts are conveyed in a single row along a pair of guide rails that engage with groove portions formed between flanges formed on the outer circumferential surfaces of spouts, and then the spouts are supplied to a rotor that makes a continuous rotation. In other words, the spouts are arranged and conveyed by a timing screw so that the spouts are separated from each other by a predetermined distance; and when the spouts are pushed out from the tip end of the timing screw, the spouts leave the guide rails and are held by a spout holding means provided on the rotor which has just rotated to this spout-push-out point, thus completing the transfer of the spouts from the guide rails to the rotor.
The above continuously rotating rotor further transfers the spouts to a continuously rotating rotor of, for instance, an apparatus that manufactures bags attached with spouts.
Meanwhile, in a supply apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2001-353793, spouts that are conveyed in a single row along a pair of guide rails that engage with the groove portions of the spouts are supplied to an intermittently (stop, acceleration, constant speed, deceleration, stop) rotating rotor.
The guide rails of this supply apparatus are disposed in a direction that is tangential to the circular rotor, and the head portion of the leading spout (among the conveyed spouts) that has come to the tip end portions of the guide rails is held by holding members disposed on the circumference of the rotor when this rotor is stopped, thus completing the transfer of the leading spout from the guide rails to the rotor.
This intermittently rotating rotor further transfers the spouts to a continuously rotating rotor of, for instance, an apparatus that manufactures bags attached with spouts.
In the above-described supply apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 11-208884, spouts are held by the spout holding means provided on the continuously rotating rotor when the spouts leave the guide rails. However, spouts are conveyed in the radial direction of the rotor and then held by the holding means on the rotor that are continuously moving in the circumferential direction. Accordingly, the supply apparatus have several problems.
One problem is that if an attempt is made to increase the spout transfer performance by way of increasing the rotational speed of the rotor, it becomes impossible to ensure a sufficient time for the transfer of the spouts from the guide rails to the holding means that are disposed on the continuously rotating rotor. Another problem is that in this supply apparatus, a guide is disposed along the direction of rotation of the rotor at the end portion of the guide rails in order to ensure a sufficient transfer time. However, since the holding of the spouts is accomplished during the rotation of the rotor, the transfer of the spouts becomes unstable if an attempt is made to increase the spout transfer performance by way of increasing the rotational speed of the rotor. Moreover, there is a possibility that the spouts are damaged as a result of rubbing against the guide, so that leaking of contents subsequently occurs when such a damaged spout is used for a bag even if the bag is sealed.
On the other hand, in the supply apparatus disclosed in the above-described Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 2001-353793, transfer of spouts is performed while the rotor is stopped during its intermittent rotation. Accordingly, even if the rotational speed of the rotor is increased, the transfer can be done in a relatively stable fashion. However, if an attempt is made to increase the spout transfer performance by way of further increasing the rotational speed of the rotor, then stopping and positioning of the spouts at the tip end portions of the guide rails and holding of the spouts by the holding means become unstable.
The present invention was made in the light of the problems in the prior art apparatuses.
The object of the present invention is to provide a system in which a transfer of spouts from the guide rails to a rotor can be performed in a stable fashion even if the spout transfer performance is increased by way of speeding up the rotation of the rotor.
The above object is accomplished by a unique structure of the present invention for a spout supply apparatus in which spouts are supplied to spout holding members disposed at equal intervals around the circumference of a rotor that rotates intermittently by an amount equal to the attachment spacing intervals of the spout holding members, so that the spouts are supplied at a predetermined stopping position of the rotor. In this rotor, each spout holding member has a pair of holding sections which are disposed so as to face each other and which hold groove portions between the flanges of the spouts, and these holding sections are disposed with their opened portions facing outward in the radial direction of the rotor.
In the unique structure of the present invention, the above-described supply apparatus is provided with:
a pair of guide rails which engage with the groove portions of the spouts and are disposed so as to face the holding section of the spout holding member at the above-described predetermined position where the rotor stops its rotation,
a conveying device that conveys the spouts along the guide rails in such a manner that a preceding spout is separated from following spouts by a predetermined distance, and
a push-out device equipped that has a pushing pawl which pushes the leading spout, which is being conveyed along the guide rails, from the guide rails into the holding section of the spout holding member.
In this supply apparatus, the direction in which the spouts are pushed out by the pushing pawl is set to be the radial direction of the rotor; however, the conveying direction of the conveying device is not necessarily the radial direction of the rotor.
In the above structure of the present invention:
the spouts are transferred one at a time from the guide rails to the spout holding members when the intermittently rotating rotor is stopped;
since it is only necessary to push the spouts into the holding sections of the spout holding members disposed on the rotor without any operation that grasps the spouts on the rotor during the transfer of the spouts, the transfer of the spouts can be done in an extremely short period of time; and
since the push-in direction of the pushing pawl and the orientation of the holding sections of the spout holding members are aligned, the pushing out of the spouts by the pushing pawl can be done at a high speed.
Accordingly, even if the rotor is intermittently rotated at a high speed, the spouts can be assuredly pushed into the holding sections of the spout holding members disposed on the rotor without causing any instability in the transfer of the spouts.
A fairly strong force is generally required in order to push the spouts into the holding sections of the spout holding members on the rotor (i.e., the spouts must be grasped by a fairly strong force in order to insure that the spouts does not shift in position or slip out of the holding sections of the spout holding members provided on the rotor that is rotating at a high speed). Such a push-in operation cannot be accomplished by the conveying device alone at a high speed, and the pushing pawl is required as it is provided in the present invention.
In the present invention, for instance, a timing screw whose forward lead is broadened is used as the above-described conveying device. With the use of such a timing screw, the spouts are conveyed with their head portions being engaged with the screw grooves of timing screw, and the spouts that are conveyed to the timing screw in a mutually concentrated state or in an irregular state can be conveyed forward by way of separating the spouts from each other by a predetermined distance as in the same manner as that described in the above-described Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 11-208884.
With a timing screw, conveying of the spouts at its front end portion is unstable, and the timing screw does not have a sufficient force to push the spouts into the holding sections of the spout holding members disposed on the rotor. However, in the present invention, the spout that has been conveyed to the front end of the timing screw is contacted from behind by the pushing pawl and is pushed out in the forward direction, so that the spouts are pushed into the holding sections of the spout holding members on the rotor.
In the above-described supply apparatus, it is desirable that the pushing pawl be disposed in a position beneath the guide rails. The reason for this is that in cases where this pushing pawl is disposed above the guide rails, the pawl will contact the head portions of the spouts and damage the head portions. If this occurs, the contents would leak through the damaged spouts even if caps are put on the spouts.
Furthermore, the above-described push-out device is preferably designed so that:
the pushing pawl is formed on the tip end portion of a push-out member,
the push-out member is pivotally connected at its rear end portion to one end of a swing lever which is at its other end swingably disposed, and
the push-out member is rotatably connected at its intermediate portion to one end of a crank lever that is rotatable about a supporting shaft; and further
the rotation of the crank lever causes the pushing pawl to make a rotational motion along the horizontal elliptical track whose longer axis is oriented in the radial direction of the rotor, and
the elliptical track is set so that the pushing pawl avoids interfere with a leading spout (among the spouts being conveyed) when the pushing pawl is moved away from the rotor and so that the pushing pawl is brought into contact with the leading spout from behind when the pushing pawl is moved toward the rotor.
With the thus structured crank mechanism employed in the push-out device, the pushing pawl makes a smooth rotational motion at a high speed along the elliptical track and pushes out the spouts from the timing screw (or the conveying device). Thus, the supply apparatus can meet the high speed rotation of the rotor.
As described above in the prior art section, the spouts that have been supplied to the intermittently rotating rotor are then supplied to a continuously rotating rotor of, for instance, a manufacturing apparatus for bags that are attached with spouts or the like. As in the case of the intermittently rotating rotor, such a continuously rotating rotor of a bag manufacturing apparatus is provided with a plurality of spout holding members disposed at equal intervals around the circumference of the rotor, and the opened portions of the holding sections of the spout holding members face radially outward and the holding sections facing each other hold the groove portion formed between the flanges of each spout. In this case, it may be said that the intermittently rotating rotor is used as a transfer rotor that connects guide rails and the continuously rotating rotor and thus constitutes a part of an apparatus that supplies spouts to the above-described continuously rotating rotor in addition to the conveying device and push-out device.
In this case, the object of the intermittently rotating rotor (a transfer rotor) is to smooth the transfer of the spouts to the continuously rotating rotor; and this intermittently rotating rotor rotates intermittently by an amount equal to the attachment spacing intervals of the spout holding members in a fixed cycle of stopping, acceleration, constant speed, deceleration and stopping. In addition, the intermittently rotating rotor is set so that the speed of the spout holding members matches the speed of the spout holding members of the continuously rotating rotor during the constant-speed rotation. Thus, during the constant-speed rotation of the intermittently rotating rotor, the spouts are transferred from the spout holding members of this rotor to the spout holding members of the continuously rotating rotor.
The apparatus of the present invention described above is for spouts. However, the apparatus of the present invention is utilized also as a supply apparatus that supplies a spout-equipped bag in which a bag is sealed to a spout. In this case, the bags with spouts that are supplied to the intermittently rotating rotor are subsequently supplied to the continuously rotating rotor of, for instance, a filling machine.